A native Ohioan has little nice to say about his birthplace

Admit it — as much as we're tired of the ads, it's been kind of flattering, all this attention for Ohio as the state that will decide the presidential election.
So as a corrective to our outsized political egos these days, by all means check out this (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) New Republic piece, by novelist and Ohio native Walter Kirn, that says, essentially, we don't deserve the privilege.
“That any one state should posses such outsize power over the country's political destiny strikes me as outrageous on its face, but that this state should be my own birthplace, the very cradle of American mediocrity and overzealous lawn ornamentation, is positively terrifying,” he writes.
“To those who know it well, in a way the Census Bureau only could if it were based in Akron or Sandusky, the soul of Ohio is its utter soullessness,” Mr. Kirn continues. “What Gertrude Stein said of Oakland — that “there isn't any there there” — is so much truer of Ohio that no one would ever bother to mention it, let alone be considered witty for doing so. In Oakland, one half expects to find a there and is disappointed when one doesn't. In Ohio, on the other hand, nothing– and nowhere–ness is the whole premise.”
Ohio's history of producing good rock bands — including the Pretenders and the Black Keys, both from Akron — reveals “the deep human need to feel something, anything, when surrounded by total tedium and depletion. Which is to say that Ohio rocks so hard because if it didn't, it wouldn't exist.”
Indeed, he writes, “the only extraordinary individuals who rush toward Ohio, and not away from it, are presidential candidates.”
Voters, you may now go back to being the center of the political universe. At least until the polls close tomorrow night.

Do you know who I am?

Of course, the presidency isn't the only thing at stake in tomorrow's national elections.
Control of the Senate also is in play, though this New York Times story declares that the hopes of the Republican Party “for at best a tie in the Senate now seem to rest on the slender shoulders of Josh Mandel, a baby-faced 35-year-old Ohio state treasurer who concedes that he looks 19.”
Republicans “are in danger of losing Senate seats in Indiana, Maine and Massachusetts,” the newspaper says. “If they did, they would need to sweep all of the contests in which they either lead or are nearly tied — in Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin — and then hope that Mr. Mandel can pull out a victory.”
(If you're wondering, the House seems safe for Republicans.)
Since Oct. 17, the beginning of the final campaign reporting period, The Times says that 40 groups “have spent $13.9 million on the Senate race in Ohio, 43 percent of the $32.7 million spent since the primaries. Of that late rush, nearly 9 of every 10 dollars have been spent on behalf of Mr. Mandel.”
But The Times notes Mr. Mandel's opponent, Sen. Sherrod Brown, and his allies have played the game as well, “using negative advertising to paint Mr. Mandel as a brat who stocked the treasurer's office with friends and cronies while not bothering to show up for work.”
The story includes an amusing anecdote about the indignities candidates occasionally suffer, even when they're backed by millions of dollars in ad support. From the story:
Over the weekend, (Mr. Mandel) played the sidekick to the House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, who barnstormed the state with Mr. Mandel but always played the top act of the show. In Painesville on Saturday night, Mr. Mandel gave brief remarks from his stump speech and then introduced Mr. Boehner, who promptly forgot his name.
“I've got to tell you, I'm proud of our ticket. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan,” Mr. Boehner said. “Uh, we've got, uh, he was just here. I'm going brain-dead. Josh Mandel!”
Mr. Mandel shrugged it off. “Listen,” he said, “he's third in line to be president. This is one of most important and powerful leaders we have in this country. He's a lot more important guy than I am.”

Shhhhh

It's darn hard finding anything in the national media today that isn't politics-related, but this story from Bloomberg, is pretty fascinating, and it involves two companies — steelmaker ArcelorMittal and natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp. — with a significant presence in Ohio.
Both are among global corporations that experience computer attacks and “kept (them) secret from shareholders, regulators, employees — and in some cases even from senior executives,” Bloomberg reports.
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, a big steelmaker in Cleveland, “kept mum when intruders targeted, among others, its executive overseeing China,” according to the news service.
Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake took the same approach “after cyber attackers made off with files from its investment banking firm about natural gas leases that were up for sale,” Bloomberg reports.
Here's how Bloomberg described the Chesapeake hack:
At just after noon on Sept. 22, 2011, the logs show, hackers gained access to the computer system of Kyle Guidry, an investment banker in Houston who handles energy deals for New York-based Jefferies. The intruders rooted around in Guidry's system for about three hours, departing at 3:17 p.m. local time. Among the files they took were those titled “CHK Mississippian,” “CHK Utica JV Utica,” “Sinopec CA - Executed.docx” and “General - China SHG\deals\STA.”
The story notes that Chesapeake, whose ticker on the New York Stock Exchange is CHK, “was in the midst of selling stakes in the Utica shale deposit in Ohio at the time, and is still trying to find buyers for assets in the Mississippi Lime in Kansas and Oklahoma.”
Neither Chesapeake nor Jefferies disclosed the hack to shareholders.
Bloomberg notes that Chinese energy companies “have been on an energy buying spree in the U.S. and Canada.” Fu Chengyu, chairman of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, said in May the company has held talks with Chesapeake and others about shale investments.
Officials at Sinopec and Chesapeake didn't respond to Bloomberg.
The story notes that Chesapeake “hasn't publicly disclosed any loss of deal information, nor does it list data breaches as a risk-factor in SEC filings.”
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